The Best Home Security System

Your home is your castle, your safe place, and it deserves to be protected while you are home, at work, or out of state on vacation. If you’re browsing the internet for home security systems, it’s obvious you want to find the best security system for home protection. What features make for a worthy contender of being the best?

For starters, having some sort of professional monitoring service is peace of mind unlike any other. Someone is remotely watching over your house and property if an emergency arises. Costs for this can factor in, but the added coverage might be worth it. Equally important to monitoring is the customer service aspect. Make sure your system has representatives who are available and can help in technical challenges or warranty issues.

Now the more technology features included can mean more bang for your buck and the stronger the security can actually be. If you are converting your home to a smart home, perhaps you should look for a smart security system that integrates into your devices via a mobile app. With all the video doorbells and cameras available, it never hurts to buy a security system with video camera on it for added measure with motion detection built in, of course.

With that said, what current models on the market fall under the category of “the best home security systems”? In this blog, we will be exploring three of the most popular ones available now.

Ring Alarm Pro

The Ring Alarm Pro is a sensor-based alarm, meaning sensors are placed on your doors and doorframes. The break in sensors means the door is opened and you’ll receive alerts via WiFi as a result. Due to its capabilities, it has the ability to support a large number of cameras if you wish to purchase and add them into your whole security system. Ring’s Alarm Pro package includes a built-in Erro Wi-Fi 6 router which is designed to replace your current internet router. However, it can act as a secondary router to enhance your home WiFi network speed and better manage multiple devices and sensors.

To start, the Ring Alarm Pro kit includes one Alarm Pro Base Station, one keypad, four contact sensors for windows/doors, one motion detector for one hallway/room, and one alarm range extender. To cover more rooms for a larger house, this kit allows for extra alarm sensors and Eero 6 WiFi extenders to be added after initial installation.

Setting up your system is extremely simple. Plug-in the Pro Base station to an outlet that will act as the permanent outlet and power station. Set up your home security system using the Ring and Eero mobile apps and place the sensors in your desired locations.

For $20/month, professional monitoring is optional through the Ring Protect Pro plan, a subscription plan sold separately. Additionally, in the Ring Protect Plan, you can create a cellular network connection in the event of a power failure. If you have an Alexa setup in your home, you can arm and disarm by voice with ease. Extra add-ons are available such as a glass break sensor, smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, flood and freeze sensor, security cameras, video doorbells, smart lighting, and more. 

Ring Alarm 2nd Generation (Original Model, 5-Piece Kit)

If you are new to smart home security system or this would be your first alarm system setup, the original Ring Alarm is a great choice. This 5-piece kit is an easy-to-use system that utilizes the same add-ons as the Alarm Pro Kit. This original kit includes one base station, one keypad, one contact sensor, one motion detector, and one range extender. The fewer pieces and sensors make this an ideal solution for a condo, apartment or even a tiny home.

Unlike the Ring Alarm Pro, the Ring Alarm kit does not offer a cellular network connection. However, the base station has 24 hours of battery backup built in. If you want to upgrade your kit, the same Ring Protect plan allows you to receive mobile notifications, change alarm modes, and monitor all Ring devices through your Ring mobile app.

Additionally, with the upgrade, you can arm and disarm with Alexa if you have an accompanying device installed. You’ll also have professional monitoring services watching over for the same $20/month.

SimpliSafe The Essentials Package

Outside of Ring’s well-known options, there’s another name making waves called SimpliSafe. For one, their Essentials package caught our eye for some of the features not offered out of the box previously. One major pro to SimpliSafe’s kit is that it includes monitoring from the start and without an upgraded and paid subscription.

The base station which resembles an oil diffuser that will dispense peace of mind throughout your home via an automatic setup. Simply plug in the base station and place your sensors. The base station will then locate and manage all your installed sensors on its own. On top of that, the base station has an integrated SIM card which auto-activates and sends all your alarm signals to SimpliSafe’s monitoring center.

Where other systems have (or offer) a backup cellular connection, SimpliSafe has a backup plan for their backup plan. Twin cellular and Wi-Fi connections run in tandem in the event of severe connection failure or extended power outages. And this is done without an additional phone line.

Let’s talk numbers. The Essential kit can handle up to 100 sensors to protect everything from an apartment to a mansion. In the event of a power outage, the base station will last up to 24 hours and will recharge once power has been restored.

On the flip side, SimpliSafe is not the smartest in that it doesn’t sync with any smart ecosystems except a brand called August Smart Locks.

Included in the Essentials Package is 1 base station, 1 keypad, 1 entry sensor, 1 motion sensor, 1 wired indoor camera, and 1 free smart alarm wireless indoor security camera.

Conclusion

Our advice on where to begin is to first consider how much space you want to protect. Then decide what features are required for peace of mind and protection. Are you going to need professional monitoring or will you self-monitor? Do you already have a smart home ecosystem in place or are you just starting with a new setup?

Whatever you decide, budget to pay at least $150 for a basic home security system up to around $500 for the fully loaded packages available including additional plans with monitoring. Once thing is certain, these products not only cater to a variety of persons, families and housing situations, but they offer a boatload of features out of the box!